Social Security Trust Vs. Privatization

The Social Security Act of 1935, signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, created a program that included social insurance programs, as well as public assistance. Both programs came about due to the depression and were created as part of the New Deal to benefit the citizens who needed assistance. While both programs were created to assist the public, each program had different eligibility requirements and accomplished different tasks.

The Social Security Act of 1965 established Medicare and Medicaid which are health insurance programs for the poor and elderly people of the United States. It is funded by a tax on the earnings of employees and contributions by the employers. “It is now broadly apparent that those who opposed Social Security in 1935 and Medicare in 1965 were wrong in their fears…” (Nicholas Kristof  “The Wrong Side of History”).

Lastly, the Social Security Act was one of many reform efforts that sprung from the New Deal. This act was an attempt to provide general welfare for women and their children, those with disabilities such as blindness, older individuals, and public health, and helped financially support them while they were looking for work elsewhere. It was most common with elderly individuals, as they received what is known as “old-age pensions.” This was one of the few reforms that has stayed with us since the New Deal, and was economically successful in bringing America out of the Great

In “The Social Security Problem”, Max Moore discusses the fearful reality of Social Security running out of funds. He states that the U.S. Department of the Treasury predicts that Social Security funds will run out by 2041 and action must be taken in order to prevent this (134). In his essay, he explains how the depletion of Social Security funds are a result from a decreasing retirement age, decreasing fertility rate, and shrinking work force. These things contribute to an increased population relying on Social Security, an increased population of the elderly, and a decreased ratio of workers paying for those beneficiaries (135). Moore explains the proposal of George W. Bush to make Social Security partially privatized; allowing young workers to invest their retirement savings into their own account. This would result in people putting their retirement on the line in

Medicare and Medicaid, created by the Social Security Amendment Act 1965, added Title XVIII and XIX to the Social Security Act. President Lyndon B Johnson was responsible for bringing about this change. Social Security Program started during the Great Depression of 1930s because of the stock market crash and bank failure, which wiped away the retirement savings of the Americans. Poverty rate among senior citizen exceeded 50% during this time. Social Security Act was created in an attempt to limit the five dangers of modern American Society. The Social Security Act was

A landmark change in providing for the elderly came in 1935 with Franklin D. Roosevelt 's Social Security Act. While this provided aid to people with disabilities and mothers with children, aid was also mainly intended for the elderly. The premise of the act was that an individual would pay into the government through the years that they worked and upon retiring that person would receive benefits. Elderly Americans relied on this system to help pay for expenses that they might incur after they reached an age where they could no

For many years the social security program has been operating successfully. In recent times however, it is becoming apparent to some that social security is in need of reform. Their argument is that with the amount of people getting older in the next couple of decades, there will not be enough money left in the social security reserves to pay for everyone who needs it. That is why the idea of separating social security up into private funds has been brought to the attention of the American citizens. This idea of reform has been around for quite a long time; however it has been pushed on by pro reform supporters more in recent times because they think it is necessary for the

It’s a matter of either losing all that you have worked for and live in poverty when retired or allowing your hard earned dollars to grow and have a secure comfortable retirement. I believe that Social Security is a doomed Government Program and that Privatization of Social Security would allow for a more secure retirement plan for all Americans. Social Security was first created to help aging Americans in their senior years so they would not end up in poverty. Social Security was signed in as law on August 14, 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was fully operating by 1940. Originally a retirement program, but Social Security now includes survivor benefits, disability benefits and Medicare and all together is the largest

By reading the arguments the main issue is determining whether or not Social Security should be privatized or not. With roots of our nation lying in free will and the ability to form our own future, privatizing Social Security sounds like a way to live up to that precedent. The question now is what comes with privatizing Social Security? A few benefits seen can range from boosting money coming into the economy, which will help the national debt, it will help the poor and the minorities, and the ability to inherit accounts will be possible. With the long-term privatization “As stated by President George W. Bush, ‘Personal accounts, which could be passed along to the next generation, would go a long way toward reducing that disparity.’" (“Privatizing Social Security – ProCon.org.”) Basically what this means, is say someone is able to open up a private account and begin monthly putting money into that account, and by the time they reach retirement age or even right before retirement age they pass away, then the money that has been saved up is no longer required to support them. With Social Security the money that would be supporting them is no longer needed and will end up going to someone else or to benefit the government. With a private account you can build up money that can be passed down through family with the necessary guidelines to effectively make sure that the elders in the family are compensated for financially. If this went and became something that the majority of the nation took apart of, then one could hopefully say that overtime there would be less homeless people roaming the streets, and more would be secure through their private family

     Privatization is the most controversial argument in this sector of government. Many citizens believe that they should be allowed to make investments on their own rather than having the government perform this for them. These people believe that by doing so they have more control over their future and more autonomy from the government. Furthermore, they stress that privatization will increase competition, which is the basis of our free market capitalistic society. Many other communities in accord, feel that by investing privately what they are now paying in Social Security would raise economic growth and increase retirement incomes. For the past several decades, the average yield on private stock has excited inflation by seven percent compared to treasury bonds that only exceeds inflation by 2.3 percent. Alternatively, all plans to privatize social security come with an adverse effect. Most noticeably, is the tax increases which are necessary to make

Before the Social Security Act, Americans had believed in laissez-faire economics and that in their capitalistic economy, winners deserved their rewards and losers needed to fend for themselves. The Social Security Act spun the schema of social responsibility 180 degrees; the federal and state governments now cared for the underprivileged and handicapped. Citizens were expected to contribute to this care for the underprivileged and handicapped through their yearly tax “contributions.”

We’ve known about the approaching Social Security troubles for some time now. Numerous plans of reform have been proposed by Senators Gregg, Moynihan, Kerrey, Representatives Porter, Sanford, Smith, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, State Street Bank, the CATO Institute, National Taxpayers Union Foundation, and the Center for Strategic & International Studies, and the Advisory Council of Social Security. Due to politics, no president has touched the issue. Even though we’ve known about the problems in Social Security, no president has ever attempted reform as it isn’t a current problem. Therefore it has never been a priority for those needing votes to stay in office. Now that we are as close as seven years to recalling the IOUs, the issue is rapidly progressing into a crisis. Even if we found a

Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the original Social Security Act. It comprised of two services: a Social Security retirement benefit that applied only to workers, and a welfare program for the elderly called Old Age Assistance. Social

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democratic President, invented Social Security as part of "The New Deal" in the year 1935. Its invention was to combat the "The Great Depression". It was invented along with welfare to help America's elderly, disabled, and unemployed.

The Social Security System is in need of a new reform; our current system was not designed for the age stratification we have at this time. The U.S. Social Security Administration Office of Policy states, “The original Social Security Act, signed into law on August 14, 1935, grew out of the work of the Committee on Economic Security, a cabinet-level group appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt just one year earlier. The Act created several programs that, even today, form the basis for the government's role in providing income security, specifically, the old-age insurance, unemployment insurance, and Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) programs.” Social Security was modeled to aid the elderly citizens, however during the